Antonio Canova 1757-1822: Also John Gibson RA and Bertel Thorvaldsen

By Ian Andrews

This book covers the life of the Italian neo-classical sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822), some of his works and the lives of two of his contemporaries: John Gibson RA (1790-1866), known as the ‘British Canova’, and the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844). Both Gibson and Thorvaldsen lived and worked in Rome under the influence and in the shadow of Canova. All three sculptors helped and guided each other. Gibson was under considerable pressure to return to London, which he resisted, while Thorvaldsen returned to his homeland on several occasions and was greeted as a celebrity. The book aims to rectify the dearth of information in English on Canova and updates the information available on Gibson and Thorvaldsen in this bicentenary year of the death of Antonio Canova.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jun 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398443792

Ian Andrews

Ian Andrews is an art historian and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was awarded his Master’s degree in 2018. He grew up in London, attended Alleyn’s School and moved to Buckinghamshire, when he married his wife. He was very much involved with local politics and became the head of welfare for a national charity. During this time he attended weekend courses on the Italian Renaissance at Madingley Hall, part of Cambridge University. He continued his studies at Birkbeck College, London University and upon moving to Dorset with his wife, became a Town clerk. He continued his studies with the Open University. Ian Andrews is married and has one daughter.

Book preview

Preface

My motivation for writing this work was due to the fact that whilst I was studying for my first degree, I found there was a dearth of information on Antonio Canova written in English. The mighty volume written by Fred Licht (Abbeville Press, New York, 1983) lavishly illustrated with superb photographs taken by David Finn, was out of print, but a second-hand copy was available via the Internet. There were few other English publications. It occurred to me that other art historians or those just interested in sculpture might benefit from my work and research. It is appropriate that this book should be published in the bicentenary year of Canova’s death (2022).

Following the exhibition of works by John Gibson RA at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in the autumn of 2016 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his death, and having been invited to attend an academic seminar in December 2016 on the sculptor organised by the Royal Academy, it seemed natural to include this ‘British Canova’ in this work, besides which, he was a student of Canova.

To balance the project, I decided the work by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen had to be included since he too was a contemporary of Canova and considered at one point to be his rival. However, upon Canova’s death, Thorvaldsen assumed Canova’s mantel.

These three sculptors lived and worked in Rome – the Eternal City, where it was maintained that all artists should live since the city was considered the University of Sculpture. Patrons, not least various Popes who lived in the city, visited Rome as part of their Grand tour and were generous with their commissions, particularly to sculptors.

Sculpture had been accepted as an art rather than merely manual labour and the many works of art produced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are as never before appreciated in the twenty-first century. This work will show how three world-famous artists produced works of art, many of which continue to be displayed and admired.

Ian M Andrews

Summer 2020

Antonio Canova. (1757–1822)

Museum and Gipsoteca Possagno

‘Arguably the greatest and most illustrious sculptor of his age, Antonio Canova is synonymous to this day with the zenith of neo-classicism².’

Antonio Canova was born on 1st November 1757 in Possagno, a village situated in the foothills of the Dolomites, in an area of Italy known as the Veneto. He was the son of Pietro Canova, who with his father Pasino, ‘were sculptors of repute at that time as their numerous productions attest³.’ He died on 13th October 1822 in Venice.

Antonio Canova was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures, but he was also a painter, although his paintings are not so well known. Canova’s father died when he was three years old. Before he was five his mother, Angela Zardo, remarried and moved away from Possagno leaving him in the care of his paternal grandfather Pasino, after he had spent some time with a paternal aunt, Caterina Ceccato. By her second marriage, his mother had his half-brother, Giovanni Battista Sartori who became very close and faithful to Canova during his life and as will be seen was the prime mover in establishing the Gipsoteca in Possagno to house the sculptor’s works. As already stated, his grandfather Pasino was a stonemason and sculptor. ‘The place of Canova’s childhood was inauspicious⁴.’ Canova’s family whilst not poor, fell socially well below the level of the provincial upper class. ‘A broad outlook, a sophisticated ambition, would have come exclusively from within the child, for there were no models to emulate⁵.’ His abandonment by his mother meant that Canova grew up and was brought up by his paternal grandfather. He was indebted to his grandfather for the grounding in his